Conduit coupling



July l T941; l. KAMENARovlc 2,247,843

CONDUIT COUPLING Filed April 5, 1940 Patented July 1, 1941 CONDUIT COUPLING Leone Kamenarovi, Milan, Italy, assigner to Fabbrica Italiana Magneti Marelli Societ Anonima, Milan, Italy, a corporation of Italy Application April 5, 1940, Serial No. 328,105 In Italy January 18, 1937 3 Claims.

Couplings for conduits located on vehicles, particularly in connection with fluid pressure brakes on tractor and trailed vehicles in road trains and the like are known, in which means are provided for the automatic release of the coupling members at the time a pull over a certain range is operative thereon and it is known to provide such coupled vehicles with an indicator and means controlling it and made operative by the separation of said vehicles to give a warning to the train driver as to such an occurrence.

This invention has for its object a plunger switch adapted for being embodied in couplings oi the above stated class and cooperating with the coupling clamping means to energise the circuit of an electric indicator at the time said clamping means are moved on the coupling members releasing each other.

An embodiment of this invention is shown by way of example on the annexed drawing and Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic fragmentary view of adjacent portions of a tractor and a trailed vehicle having conduits coupled by means of couplings of the class to which this invention is directed, and

Fig. 2 is a central vertical section to an enlarged scale of a coupling in which a plunger switch of this invention is embodied.

As illustrated in Fig. l, the opposite adjacent ends of the frames I and 2 of the tractor and trailed Vehicles are interconnected by a draw bar or coupler 3 and on said frame ends are located the conduit coupling stationary members il, 4'; a releasable coupling head 5, 5 is engaged with each of said stationary members 4, 4 respectively and said heads 5, 5' are interconnected by means of a liexible hose E intended to connect the pressure fluid systems of the tractor and trailed vehicle.

As shown more particularly in Fig. 2, the stationary coupling member 4 provides a duct 1 controlled by a valve adapted to be actuated by a suitable handle (not shown), said duct having a seal ring 9 at its outlet and also an automatic Valve l which is biased by a spring l i in its cutoff position; said valve It is adapted to be held in open position when normal conditions of operation exist, by a cooperating finger l2 of the respective separable coupling head 5, 5.

The stationary coupling member 4 further includes at its top a hook or hinge seat i3; at the bottom of said member 4 a pawl I4 is pivoted by means of a transverse spindle I fast in the member said pawl if being integral with a head i4 and a handle I6.

In a cylindrical chamber Il integral with the member 4 is mounted to reciprocate a plunger E2 which belongs to a switch, hereinafter described, controlling a circuit of an indicator to give a warning when the coupled vehicles happen to be disconnected from each other; said plunger I8 is loaded by a spring I9 and acts on the head i4' of the pawl I4.

The indicator controlling switch includes a Contact member 20 carried by a stem 2| fast in the chamber I 'I and insulated therefrom by means of insulating parts 22, as well as a second contact member provided by an inward collar I8' of the plunger I8 which is spaced from the stem 2|; said collar I8 is held spaced from thc contact member 2li when the plunger I8 is held by the head I4 and pawl I4 in the position illustrated in Fig. 2 due to the engagement of pawl I4 with the separable head 5 at the time this head is coupled with the coupling member 4; on the contrary said collar I8 engages the contact member Z at the time the head 5 is removed from the member 4 and releases the pawl I4 as hereinafter described.

The indicator circuit includes a suitable source of electric current shown at 23 and an indicator 24, as an electric lamp; said circuit has one end connected with the stem 2| and its other end connected with the coupling member 4, chamber I1 and plunger i8 as illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 2.

The separable coupling head '5 has a ductI 25 adapted to be connected with the duct l of the stationary member 4; said head 5 also carries a connector 26 extending from its duct 25 and vintended to have one end of the hose 6 attached thereto; the opposite end of the hose 6 is attached to the head 5 intended for coopera-tion with the coupling member 4 fast on the frame of the associate vehicle, as shown in Fig. 1.

The head 5 includes a seal ring 2l adapted to cooperate with the similar ring 9 of the stationary member 4 and also the nger l2 operative on the valve IIE of Ithe stationary member 4 to hold it in open position so long as the member 4 and the head 5 are intercoupled as shown in Figure 2 and as above stated.

Finally the separable coupling head 5 has a rounded knob 28 adapted to provide a releasable hinge engagement with the hook or seat I3 of member 4 as well as a nose 29 adapted for engagement with the pawl I4.

As above described and as illustrated, the interengaging means I3, 2B and 29, i4 respectively, are located on opposite edges of the faces of member 4 and seat 5 which abut on and interengage with each other, and the connector 26 extends along a line inclined to the planes of said faces and passing substantially through the point of interengagement of the knob 2li in the hook seat I3 said point being the centre of possible respective oscillation of the member 4 and head 5. Y

Assuming the coupling mem-ber 4 and head 5 to be in disconnected condition and to be desired to interengage them, an operator acts on the handle i6 clockwise in the direction of the arrow It in Fig. 2 to remove the pawl I4 from way and holds said handle and p-awl in such position; subsequently he aflixes the head 5 on the stationary member 4 by firstly engaging the knob 23. thereof in the hook i3 of member and thereafter by causing said head 5 -to oscillate around the abutment point of lrnob 23 in hook I3 until the ring 2l is caused to rest frontally on the ring 9 of member li, the finger I2 at this time engaging the valve I0 and opening it; thereafter the operator releases the handle iii and then the pawl IA swings anticlockwise around its spindle i5 under the action of plunger It and spring I9 and engages the nose 29 of head 5 to clamp this head 5 over the stationary member 5 in the illustrated position, the collar i8 oi the plunger It being held removed from the contact blade 2Q.

When the two vehicles I and 2 are connected by a draw bar or coupler 3 as above described and as illustrated in full lines in Fig. 1, the member i and the head 5 of the described coupling remain in the illustrated engaged conditions when the trailed vehicle is driven Iby the tractor by the intermediate of the draw bar 3, the removable head 5 being not stressed in the direction of its release by the coupling hose 6 because in the assumed conditions the said hose is freely depending from the respective end and connectors 2S as illustrated in full lines in Fig. l, and its weight has no action to cause the heads 5, 5' to oscill'ate around the coupling hinge means I3, 28 of the respective member I or I for release, on account of the above described location of the line of action of said hose 6 and connector 25 with respect to said hinge means I3, 38.

Should the draw bar or coupler 3 fail during the travel as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and the distance intermediate the vehicles l and 2 tend to increase due to the fact that the tractor I is further riding forward while the trailed vehicle 2 tends to come to rest, the hose E takes a stretched coniiguration as illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and it acts on either of heads 5, 5 connected therewith, say on the head 5 to cause it to oscillate in the direction of the arrow 6' in Fig. 2 around the point of engagement of the knob 2S in the hook seat I3 of the member d fast on he frame of the vehicle I under this action the nose 2E! acts on the pawl It and causes it to oscillate clockwise around the spindle I5 it is pivoted on and to overcome the action of spring I9 and plunger i8 thereon; said nose 29 is thus caused to be released from the pawl I4 and thereafter the knob 23 moves off from the hook i3 the head 5 being thus free to fall down from member 4 to secure the release of the coupling member 4 and head 5 and of the vehicles; the valve I closes under the action of its spring II as soon as it has been released by the iinger l2 fast in the head 5.

At such time the indicator circuit switch IB', is made operative because the plunger I8 moves under the action of the cooperating spring i9 and the collar l'thereof engages the contact blade 2i) to close the circuit 23, 2li and energize the indicator 24.

The duct I may then be finally shut oii by the manipulation of the hand valve 3,

vWhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. An electrically operative separation signalling apparatus in couplings for vehicle conduits comprising a metal part providing a stationary coupling member, a separable coupling member abutting on said stationary coupling member, interengaging hinge means on said stationary and separable coupling members, a releasable engaging member mounted on said stationary coupling member and operative on said separable coupling member to clamp it on said stationary coupling member, said part providing a chamber opening in register with said engaging member, a hollow conducting plunger reciprocable in said chamber and abutting on said engaging member, a spring in said chamber forcing said plunger against said engaging member, a conducting stem extending in said chamber and hollow plunger and electrically insulated therefrom, an electric signalling device and an electric current source connected in a series circuit across said stem and chamber and plunger, and contact means on said stem and plunger cooperative to control said circuit.

2. An electrically operative separation signalling apparatus in couplings for vehicle conduits comprising a metal part providing a stationary coupling member, a separable coupling member abutting on said stationary coupling member, interengaging hinge means on said stationary and separable coupling members, a releasable engaging member mounted on said stationary coupling member and operative on said separable l coupling member to clamp it on said stationary coupling member, said part providing a chamber opening in register with said engaging member, a hollow conducting plunger reciprocable in said chamber and having a head abutting on said engaging member, a spring in said chamber forcing said plunger against said engaging member, a conducting stem extending in said chamber and hoilow plunger and electrically insulated therefrom, an electric signalling device and an electric current source connected in a series circuit across said stem and chamber and plunger, an inwardly projecting collar in said hollow plunger at a distance from said abutting head thereof and a resilient contact disk mounted at the end of said stem in the space between said head and collar, said disk and collar cooperating together to control said circuit.

3. An electrically operative separation signalling apparatus in couplings for vehicle conduits comprising a` metal part providing a stationary coupling member, a separable coupling member abutting on said stationary coupling member, interengaging hinge means on said stationary and separable coupling members, a releasable engaging member mounted on said stationary coupling member and operative on said separable coupling member to clamp it on said stationary coupling member, said part providing a chamber having a bottom at one end and opening at its other end in register with said engaging member, a hollow conducting plunger reciprocable in said chamber and abutting on said engaging member, a spring in said chamber forcing said plunger against said engaging member, a conducting stem extending in said chamber and hollow plunger, said stem being secured in said chamber bottom and electrically insulated therefrom, an electric signalling device and an electric current source having its terminals connected with said stem and said chamber and plunger through said electric signalling device, and contact means on said stem and plunger cooperative to control the circuit or" said source and signalling means.

LEONE KAMENAROVIC. 

